Eating Wildlife Again Popular in China

Chinese traditional medicine is growing at any annual rate of 10 percent. This, together with habitat loss, has impacted medicinal plant and animal populations, which have shrunk rapidly, with 15 percent to 20 percent of medicinal plants and animals now considered endangered, the report finds.

"'The State of Wildlife Trade in China' examines the impact China's consumption is having on biodiversity and what emerging trends there are in wildlife trade," said Professor Xu Hongfa, co-ordinator of Traffic's China program.

The report found that a key "emotional motivator" for consuming wildlife was that it was from the wild, which respondents believed had the connotation of being unpolluted, precious, and special. A "functional motivator" was the belief that wildlife was nourishing and had curative value.

Eating wild animals has long been a tradition in southern China, and while general consumption of wild animals slowed with SARS in 2003, a recent survey of wild animals sold in five cities in southern China shows that the tradition has once again gained in popularity.

The online survey found 142 published cases involving the trade of wild animals for food in China. Of these, 61 involved species on the Chinese or international lists of protected animals.

The survey found a total of 56 wildlife species being sold, of which 39 were reptiles; four were mammals; 10 were birds; two were amphibians and one was a fish.

A consumer attitude survey conducted in 2007 in six cities in China - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming, Harbin, and Chengdu - aimed at understanding consumer attitude and behaviour toward wildlife consumption. The survey was conducted from December 2007 to February 2008.

Skewered snakes, lizards, seahorses, and starfish at a Beijing restaurant (Photo by Rumana Husain)

The survey found that 44 percent of respondents said they had consumed wildlife in the past 12 months and that most respondents (36%) in this group had consumed wildlife as food, followed by medicines or tonics containing wildlife (16%).

The incidence of consuming highly protected species was minimal, the survey found. There was a higher incidence of consumption of less protected species.

The survey found that the niche group of "hardcore users" who consumed highly protected species consumed these for medicines or tonics more often than as food.

The major use of other protected species - snakes, turtles, wild birds, small cats, deer and wild pig - and other wildlife not protected under Chinese law - sea horses, live reef fish, sea cucumber, shark, abalone, and pheasant - was for food.

Geographically, residents of Guangzhou in southern China had the highest incidence of wildlife consumption, as both food or medicine/tonic, followed by Kunming, Harbin and Chengdu.

Men were consistently more likely to consume wildlife as food than women. Also, people with higher incomes and education levels were consistently more likely to consume wildlife as food.

The Chinese traditional medicine trade has grown by 10 percent a year since 2003. Asia receives the greatest amount of medicinals, worth US$687 million, but Europe and North America are increasingly important markets, each importing medicinals worth about one-sixth of the amount imported by Asian countries.

Over-harvesting and poor management of resources are looming threats and currently there are no standards to ensure the sustainable collection of wild medicinal plants, the report finds.

"Traffic, the Beijing Chinese Medicinal Institution and others recently contributed to the development of the International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, which could be applied to help China's important medicinal plant industry achieve sustainability," said Professor Xu.

"The trends seen in this report that show increasing demand in wildlife products and diminishing supply should be a wake up call for law enforcement, policy makers and consumers," said Dr. Susan Lieberman, director of WWF International's Species Programme.

She said, "We call upon Chinese authorities to enhance enforcement and public education efforts, to stop illegal trade and reduce consumption of threatened species from around the world."

The bilingual report, in English and Chinese, is the second in an annual series on emerging trends in China's wildlife trade, and provides up-to-date reviews of work being carried out to prevent illegal and support sustainable trade in China.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.